Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study

The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study (TIAS), located at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, brings world-renowned scholars to collaborate on frontier research with faculty and students at A&M, with particular focus on “rising star” faculty. The institute cuts across all fields of study in A&M’s ten colleges and Health Science Center. The institute integrates a visiting scholar with the relevant department endeavors and with related specialists in adjoining fields.

Ten years in the making, TIAS was the brainchild of John L. Junkins, professor of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M. His ideas for a strategy of bringing more top scholars to Texas A&M were adopted by A&M’s administration in 2010, with support from the university and the Chancellor of the Texas A&M System.

The institute’s first two classes have included two Nobel Laureates, awardees of the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize and the Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, others who have won internationally competitive research honors, as well as members of national and international academies such as the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, the Academia Europaea, the Académie Nationale de Médecine and the Royal Society of Sciences.

Visiting scholars, or TIAS Faculty Fellows as they are called, are nominated by University Distinguished Professors or Deans. In this way, a fit with the existing scholarship and research pursuits at A&M is ensured, as is the quality of nominees based on their notable achievements. Once recruited, TIAS Faculty Fellows nominally visit Texas A&M for up to 12 months, but appointments can also be distributed over several years. TIAS Faculty Fellows are provided maximum time for intellectual pursuits with A&M’s faculty and students. While they give public lectures and are invited for periodic departmental or college seminars, they have no formal teaching assignments. Their focus is research, providing concentrated periods of time for collaboration with A&M’s faculty and for development of graduate students.

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